Since the controversy over Poleteismo exploded, the CCP’s Visual Arts Unit has been fielding calls from people requesting that Kulo be shut down. “The CCP will not be party to any censorship or suppression. Let it be a point of discussion,” said Ms. Flores, adding that she has seen works at the CCP that were “really, really, really more provocative and disturbing.” (Jose Legaspi’s installation in the Small Gallery, for example, which included a modified Pieta showing the Virgin Mother vomiting on the dead Christ.)

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Poleteismo is an old piece first shown in 2002 at the Vargas Museum of the University of the Philippines. Mr. Cruz wasn’t thinking of the Reproductive Health Bill when he conceived Poleteismo nine years ago.

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Versions of the installation have been exhibited elsewhere, most notably in 2007 in the lobby of the Loyola House of Studies (LHS) — a seminary inside the campus of the Ateneo de Manila University — as part of Tutok: Nexus, a group exhibit organized in cooperation with Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB), “an association of religious priests, seminarians and lay people committed to the service of the Filipino Church and the Filipino nation.”

If Catholic clergymen had kept quiet, if Archbishop Oscar Cruz hadn’t called the exhibit “sickening,” if he hadn’t called the artist “sick,” if he hadn’t advised the artist to see a psychiatrist, if he hadn’t implied that the artist’s sexuality was abnormal, if Bishop Deogracias Iniguez hadn’t called for a boycott, then Mideo Cruz’s Poleteismo could have gone unnoticed by the larger public.

When they find it in one of the alcoves of the Main Gallery, they will see multicolored plastic piggy banks stuffed inside a case usually reserved for religious statues; and Christ the King with a bright red clown nose, his right hand replaced by a Mickey Mouse glove, and his head crowned with Mickey Mouse ears made from a Coke can.

Hanging behind a divider is a cross with a bright red penis thrusting out from the vertical bar. And on the walls, a multimedia collage composed of a confusion of images and objects: there are ads, political paraphernalia from Fernando Poe Junior, Gilbert Teodoro, and Barack Obama; there are religious posters of Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary, and the Holy Family; there are handouts, pamphlets, and stickers; there are rosaries, penis ashtrays, crucifixes, condoms, and Christmas lights; there’s a lot of stuff.

“Thereís nothing there that you won’t see in Quiapo,” said Karen O. Flores, officer-in-charge of the CCP Visual Arts Unit.

I will talk about three presidential candidates whom I like. If anyone of them wins, the Philippines has a future.

Gilbert Teodoro

Gilbert Teodoro’s strength is in his academic credentials. But what I like about him is his emphasis in institution building. His interest is on making an excellent organization with with well defined roles. As president, his job is to provide the vision and mission for the country, and to realign the country’s resources and institutions to achieve that goal. His term as president would be over in six years, but the institutional processes that he will put in place will continue to work long after he is forgotten. Just like his father.

Teodoro is not a dictator. His method of problem solving is by consultation and consensus-building. He is a realistic. He knows that the government cannot possibly provide for every Filipinos. He knows the limit of the Philippine Fiscal Budget. So what he wants to do is to find a way to make the government and the private sector work together.

Richard Gordon

Richard Gordon’s strength is in his capacity to make people volunteer. This is the essence of a leader: to make people follow you because they believe in you. Look at what he did to Subic after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. He galvanized the people to action and cleaned up the U.S. military bases. He knows the potential of the bases to attract investments. What is needed is a leader whom the investors trust to make things happen. And he provided that leadership.

Gordon’s ads state the facts. He did not make promises. He showed his achievements. The billions of pesos of foreign investment that poured in Subic under his leadership is proof enough. If he can transform Subic, he can transform Philippines.

The Gordon and Bayani is a good tandem if they both win. Gordon the Leader. Bayani the builder.

J. C. de los Reyes

J. C. de los Reyes also has good academic credentials, second perhaps to Gilbert Teodoro. What I like about J. C. is that he is campaigning not primarily for himself but for the Kapatiran Party.

All the political parties that we have at the moment have no mission and vision to speak of. They are bunch of politicians who happen to group themselves into a party because of political convenience, just like in prehispanic Philippines. Raul Manglapus’ Christian Democratic Socialist Movement, which later became NUCD, was formed to to instill the Catholic Church’s social doctrine in the Philippine government. Then the party affiliated with Lakas and others, and the original mission of the Manglapus was diluted.

The Kapatiran Party is a revival of Raul Manglapus’s original vision. The Kapatiran’s clear stand against the Reproductive Health Bill shows the unity of the party’s mission and vision.

The administration standard-bearer found himself defending his and his wife’s decision to withdraw support from the controversial measure before doctors and medical students at a forum at the University of the Philippines in Manila.

At the forum “Make Health Count,” Teodoro explained that the debate over the measure in the House of Representatives had become so “acrimonious” that the stakeholders totally forgot about the problem of population.

“The big debate is whether or not the government can shape a moral choice. And that is the argument of the Church. That the government should not actively advocate for making a moral choice. The debate stopped there,” he said.

Teodoro indicated that he agreed with the Church position, and said that the government should be “neutral” but should support the “moral choice” of every individual with resources.

The Church, for its part, should take it upon itself to shape the “moral choice” by acknowledging the problem of a growing population, he added.

“What should the government do? Instead of being involved in debate, we should support a moral choice,” he said in response to former Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez’s question why he and his wife Tarlac Rep. Nikki Prieto-Teodoro withdrew support from the bill. “I’d rather have resources to support a moral choice rather than fight over a bill.”

Teodoro said there was a need to come to a “mutual and common understanding” on addressing population “whereby the government respects the moral choice and provides resources toward supporting that moral choice.”

“If they use the rhythm method, we can have some resources to support that by a conditional cash transfer if they do not have a birth within a year or so for the poorest of the poor,” he said, referring to the government’s program of granting cash to poor families with children enrolled in public schools.

…

“He has caved in to the Church and and agreed with his President, whose position is the reason why we have a big problem in population,” Romualdez said.

Monk’s Hobbit Notes: Gilbert Teodoro is now positioning himself more on the Pro-Life side in the debate regarding the Reproductive Health Bill. If he solidifies his position against artificial contraception and campaigns against it and contrasts himself against all the other Presidential candidates who support the Reproductive Health Bill such as Noynoy Aquino, the tide of the Teodoro’s campaign may turn in his favor. I shall offer my prayers for Teodoro and his wife in this battle against artificial contraception. I shall ask Our Lord, Our Lady, and the entire celestial court to aid Teodoro in this battle, “for our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens” (Eph 6:12). The supporters of the Reproductive Health Bill may be Legion, but fear not! Remember the story of Elisha the Prophet:

When the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an army with horses and chariots was round about the city. His servant said to him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 16He answered, Don’t be afraid; for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. 17Elisha prayed, and said, Yahweh, Please open his eyes, that he may see. Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 18When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to Yahweh, and said, Please smite this people with blindness. He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15-18)

I think I can now in conscience put Gilbert Teodoro’s website in my sidebar together with the Kapatiran Party.

Last Monday, five of us from the Manila Observatory visited Fr. Badillo, S.J. in the Jesuit Residence Infirmary. With me are Nino , Genie, Glen, and Dr. Faye Cruz. We were not able to visit him last week because of the endless Christmas parties. We talked for more than 30 minutes. At 79, his body was weakened by several operations. Though he cannot anymore return to work, his natural humorous self has come back.

At one point of our conversation, one of us asked Fr. Badillo who is his presidential candidate.

“Gilbert Teodoro, of course,” he replied. “Is there any body else?”

“Whom are you voting for?” Fr. Badillo asked Genie.

“Noynoy Aquino,” Genie said.

“But Noynoy is not very intelligent. In fact, he has done nothing.” Fr. Badillo said. “Gibo is very intelligent.”

“They said he was trained in Harvard,” Genie said. “Gibo came to the Manila Observatory months ago, Father.”

“I know his father,” Fr. Badillo said. “He was the head of the SSS before during the time of President Marcos. Imagine all those money. But Teodoro never stole money from SSS. He is an honest man. And I remember Gibo say: ‘I will not tarnish the name of my father’.”

SAYING that it has been “defanged and is now toothless” the legislator-wife of former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro, the administration bet in the 2010 presidential elections, has withdrawn her support for the controversial reproductive-health bill.

In pulling out her support for House Bill 5043, Lakas-Kampi-CMD Rep. Nikki Prieto Teodoro of Tarlac said the measure does not directly address the problem of poverty in the country, where about 5,000 Filipinos are born daily, most of them ending up poor.

…

She said that her new stand on the issue is consistent with her husband’s platform of government to fight against the “four faces of poverty: poverty of the mind, poverty of the pocket, poverty of the environment, poverty of relationships.”

“We shall protect the life of each and every citizen. Respect for life shall be from the moment of conception to the moment of death of our constituents. The protection of life is guaranteed by our constitution and on this principle there is no compromise,” former defense secretary Teodoro said in his speech during the Lakas-Kampi-CMD convention recently.

Monk’s Hobbit’s Notes: This is what I have been praying for. I was still reluctant to vote Gibo before. Though I believe that he is the most competent among the Presidential candidates, his wife’s support for the Reproductive Health Bill is a millstone around his neck. Now that his wife withdraws support for the Bill, I can now pray that Gibo wins. I hope the pro-life movement would now rally behind Teodoro’s banner.

J. C. de los Reyes is fighting a good fight. He knows he has a very slim chance in winning the presidential race. But he joins the race not for himself but to give the Kapatiran party a voice in the presidential elections. The Kapatiran party is a distinctively pro-life party. I shall vote for the Kapatiran’s senatorial slate. I watched the ANC Presidential Elections 2010 forum last night and I heard Gibo and JC speak. Gibo is more eloquent, but JC’s moral integrity shines: he is willing to waive the bank secrecy law and allow the public to know his bank account. He said that he has a house in Baguio which he built himself, because he has a brick making business. He also said that he has a lease-to-own house somewhere in Manila worth 5 million pesos; he pays P 50,000 per month. Concerning the question of the reproductive health bill, we already know what JC will say. But this is what I heard Gibo say: population control must not be legislated. I had a feeling that this is a portent of things to come and indeed, Gibo’s wife now withdraws support for the Reproductive Health Bill. If there is something good that JC had done in joining the presidential race, I think it is in making Gibo consider the moral side of the issues.

Update 12/7/2009: Gibo is still pro-choice. If he does not change his mind, I will not vote for him.